Of Balloons and Bonding
by midnightluck
Summary: Batman initiates a playdate, that is, a training exercise, Kaldur snipes, Artemis stalks, M'gann disappears, Wally defies physics, and Robin causes Superbonding through the power of trollololing, er, I mean, friendship and, uh, stuff.


__All recognizable characters belong to their respective owners (Cartoon Network).__

* * *

><p>Robin shows up at Mount Justice with a whole handful of balloons. They all gather outside<p>

"What are those?" Superboy asks.

"Cool, balloons!" Wally calls, circling Robin a few times.

"Training devices," Batman says firmly.

"What?" Artemis asks. "How can you train with balloons?"

Robin hands the bunch off to her, and ties a red balloon around his waist. He takes a few steps, and the balloon follows along behind him.

"The objective is to pop everyone else's balloons while protecting your own," Robin says, turning a cartwheel. The balloon spins gently in the air.

Everyone takes a balloon, and attaches it to their clothes or waist. Wally immediately spins around in circles, trying to see how it looks. Superboy pokes his balloon, watching it sway back and forth. M'gann tries to psychically manipulate hers, and three _pop_ sounds ring out.

"Told you it would be three!" Robin says. "You owe me ice cream."

Batman does his this-isn't-a-smile-see-how-I-scowl, and says, "When we get home."

Robin hands around new balloons, and Wally says, "You _bet_ with _Batman_?"

"And I win, too," Robin says smugly, Wally just shakes his head. "The rules are, there are no rules. Ready, set, go!"

Wally and Robin just disappear. Kaldur throws a bubble of water up over his balloon, and Superboy tugs his balloon down in front of his chest. Artemis smirks and fades into the shadows, stringing her bow. M'gann floats up and away, outstripping her balloon.

"No fair!" Wally calls, appearing to jump after M'gann. "I can't reach you!"

Artemis's arrow shoots straight towards Kid Flash's balloon, and he yelps and runs off again.

Artemis climbs a tree, and Kaldur takes off for the lake. Superboy just kind of stands there, keeping his balloon lowered by wrapping the string around his hand. "Huh," he says. "This is cool."

And so it goes, a game of cat-and-cat. Robin's birdarangs are a huge danger, as are Artemis's arrows. M'gann's got the bird's-eye view, able to make everyone's location. No one can get the drop on Wally, and Kaldur's staked out somewhere, waiting to snipe any unsuspecting balloons that cross his path. Superboy's still standing in the first clearing.

No one's seen Batman since the game—since the _training_ started, but then again, they're not really looking, either.

Artemis stops taking potshots at Superboy, and she's sneaking around, trying to find Kaldur. M'gann's agreed to a temporary truce against the boys, and is doing fly-bys. Wally's severely limited in his speed if he doesn't want to break his balloon himself, but he's still faster than them. So, in the end, no one's around to see Robin sneak up on Superboy.

In fact, no one's quite clear where Robin got the extra balloons, but they stopped asking about things like that. Robin tried to explain it once, and even Wally said the science didn't make sense. But Robin's got a whole bunch of magically-appearing Bat!balloons, and he attaches them to Superboy's beltloop, making the strings as short as possible.

They must be Bat!balloons, because just the bunch of them is enough to lift Superboy clear off the ground. "What?" Superboy says, trying to turn around. He just kind of corkscrews as he rises into the air, kind of doubled over. "Hey!"

He twists around, trying to get at the knot, but only succeeds in pulling it tighter. The strings are too short and hard to get at, so he can't just rip through them, and he can't reach his own back well enough to pop them himself. "What's going on?"

But Robin's gone, distracting M'gann with a birdarang-barrage.

"Hey!" he calls louder. "Guys! A little help here!"

Wally appears, and finally looks up. "Supes!" he calls. "What are you doing up there?" Wally jumps, and manages to snag a boot. Superboy rises another inch, and Wally's fingers slip.

"Help!" Superboy flails, which ends up with him upside-down.

"Dude, what kind of balloons _are_ those?" Wally calls up in frustration. It's a rhetorical question, because anything that defies the laws of physics or reality that he hasn't caused is clearly Robin's fault.

"Get me down!"

"How?"

"I don't care! Ahh!"

Artemis has been making her way back, and she takes the shot at Wally's balloon. He ducks and twists, and then speeds out of there. "Sorry gotta run!" he yelps.

"Artemis!" Superboy calls. "Pop my balloon! Please!"

She shades her eyes and looks up. Superboy's still gaining altitude, and he's suspended by the back of his pants, which makes him fold over awkwardly, presenting a bad target.

Artemis laughs. Then a jet of water goes shooting over her head, and she's forced to withdraw. Kaldur's come out to play, and he chases her back into the forest.

"Guys!" Superboy calls. "Seriously, forget the game; help me out here!"

Robin pops up out a tree and waves at him, then disappears.

"Robin!" he calls. "Dammit, guys! M'gann, help! I can't fly!"

He's high enough now that he should see Megan, but she's not in the air anymore. He's really starting to get worried. Then Batman glides out of the trees and looks up at him.

"Hey! Get me down!" he calls, but he's pretty sure he's out of hearing range.

"Well, damn," he says, and resigns himself to drifting.

It's getting harder to see anything down below, but he doesn't need to see clearly to recognize the bolt of blue that shows up a few minutes later.

Oh, god. Batman called Superman. Superboy groans. This day could not get worse.

Superman takes off from the forest, and approaches rapidly. He's trying to be foreboding, but it's hard not to smile at Superboy, pouting, with a bunch of heart-shaped balloons attached to his butt.

"What happened?" Superman asks, trying to frown.

Superboy mumbles something, and crosses his arms over his chest. This, unfortunately, results in a slow revolution. By the time he's facing Superman again, he says, "Robin happened."

Superman has to keep rising in order to keep even with Superboy. "I don't doubt it. Robin's a great hero, but he can be a bit of a menace, too."

Superboy keeps on turning, and Superman reaches out to steady him. Superboy blushes.

Superman sees the red on his cheeks, and says, "You know, this one time he hacked my work computer. My background and screensaver were pictures of Batman for weeks."

Superboy wants to smile, because, yes, Robin would totally do that. But Superman is twiddling his fingers and not looking at Superboy. "Can...can you help me get down?"

Superman starts. "Oh, yeah, um. Here, hold onto my arm while I pop the balloons."

Superboy gingerly grasps Superman's forearms, and Superman's heat vision sizzles over his shoulder.

The balloons explode, and the recoil throws Superboy forward and down. His grip slips, and for a few sickening moments, he's falling.

But Superman's got plenty of experience catching falling people, and he's got an arm under Superboy's, providing support while not being to clingy.

Superboy's just grateful it's not bridal-style. They descend in awkward silence.

Superboy decides to take a chance. Superman didn't seem to mind talking about Robin. "He put food coloring into Megan's cookies. She couldn't figure out how they'd turned red."

Sure enough, Superman smiles. "He somehow managed to dye my cape pink."

"He glued Wally's fingers to the refrigerator handle."

Superman laughs, and Superboy has to smile, too. They continue swapping stories all the way down, and if it takes a little longer than necessary, well, no one can prove it.

They touch down, and Superboy steps back and shuffles his feet. "Uh. Thanks," he says.

"You're welcome," Superman says. There's an awkward moment.

"You...wanna plan revenge?" Superboy offers shyly.

Superman's mouth twitches. "Yes, actually. But no one ever wants to conspire against a Bat."

"We're invulnerable," Superboy points out, daring to look up.

Superman smiles, wide and real. "Good point. I've got work now, but maybe we can talk next week about this?"

"I'm free," Superboy confirms, because whatever time Superman comes up with, Superboy will definitely be free.

Superman takes off, flying backwards for a second to wave. Superboy raises one hand a little bit.

The others crowd around him, having hidden during the conversation. "Way to go, dude!" Wally says, slapping him on the back. Megan kisses his cheek, Kaldur grips his forearm, and Artemis ruffles his hair in a congratulatory way.

"Sooooo?" Robin says, hanging back.

"Fine," Batman says. "You win. You can hold the party."

"Score!" Robin cheers. "Guys, who's up for a party?"


End file.
